Zhang Wei's latest solo exhibition "Invisible Forms" that opens on May 24, 2018 in Shanghai Art + Gallery is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Shanghai. Zhang has experienced four years of precipitation, accumulation and adjustment since receiving his postgraduate degree from Chen Wenji and graduating from the mural department of CAFA(Central Academy of Fine Arts) in 2014. After continuous thinking and tireless creating,Zhang brings to us his latest works to the exhibition and cordially invites the viewers to appreciate non-figurative painting from different perspectives.

The works of this exhibition show both continuance and new progress and thinking of the artist. The overall tone is soft, light, and there is always this unique tension generated from the strict arrangement of the painting and randomly generated texture on the surface. In the new works, there is also a breakthrough in the arrangement of the painting, Zhang dispelled the only central object of the tableau. The viewer’s way of observing the painting is changed as Zhang moved their line of sight and his focal point to the periphery of the tableau. Moreover, they achieve a different experience of appreciation when they observe the painting from diverse distance and angles.

Perhaps it is not accurate to define Zhang Wei's art as abstract. As Gilles Deleuze puts it in Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation, "there are two ways to go beyond the concrete,abstraction and visualization. Paul Cezanne gave the latter way a simple name: feeling.”Indeed, Zhang Wei's works are separated from the concrete form and representationalv expression. But what about thinking of it this way: when familiar visual experience no longer works, a search for the "potential" and the "invisible" has just quietly begun -whether regarding the imagination of abstract space concepts, or senses other than sight.It is these "invisible forms" that may be moving towards a third way between abstract and concrete. So, we can ask ourselves, do we rely too much on vision when we view artworks, especially those on the easels? Therefore, we want to take this chance to ask you to join us to think and feel about all this in front of Zhang Wei’s works.

Zhang Wei (张伟) is a Beijing-based artist born in 1984 in Pingdingshan, Henan Province,China. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts from the Mural Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing in 2010 and 2014. Using mineral paints on canvas, his works trick the eye into seeing shadows and depth with soft gradients and shading. His geometric compositions are based on the idea of folding, overlapping, and layering, creating dimensionality that lies somewhere between the planar and spatial.

Zhang Wei has participated in a number of group exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo, as well as in international art fairs such as Art Central Hong Kong and Tokyo Art Fairs. The works of a young artist have received recognition internationally when entered one of the world’s most prestigious White Rabbit Art Collection in Sydney,Australia.